Meryl Hinton
Meryl is one of the four main playable characters in Oddity Description Chipper and gentle at heart, Meryl's future sight and extreme psychic attacks make her confident that she can take anything that's thrown at her, but it also makes her a bit reckless. Just bear with it; she means well."[2] Appearance Meryl is a young girl with fair skin, a small nose, faint blush spots on her cheeks, turquoise eyes4 with a single eyelash, and long, wavy purple hair. She is shorter than Leo, Zack, and Floyd, yet taller than Travis, the youngest of the main party. Her main outfit consists of a white sleeveless polo shirt with a red collar and black buttons, a red pleated skirt with frilly yellow lace, lavender purple tights, and black Mary Jane shoes. She wears a white headband in her hair. Personality Meryl is a kind-hearted and energetic girl who bears great knowledge on ESP powers. Due to her own great power, she tends to think she can take anything on her own, but her recklessness also gets her in trouble. In spite of it, she really means well for the people she cares about. Meryl also loves to read and study, which is how she was able to acquire information on ESP. Meryl is optimistic and tends to see the bright side of things. Abilities Meryl is described as having "extreme psychic attacks." She is known to know Heat VOX, Elec VOX, and Cold VOX. She also has precognitive abilities, as she was stated to have future sight. It is also stated that Meryl saw an important future event in which she and the other three main characters were involved.6 Meryl uses jump ropes as her main weapon.7 Development Meryl's design purportedly went through the most changes.8 Her earliest sprites had hair with dark and bluish shades of purple, before it was changed to the current lightish purple color. She also wore a green dress and green shoes, and her hair was styled in a pair of buns (in a similar manner to Princess Leia from Star Wars). Initially, her sprites lacked the white headband. However she was later reworked again to have long purple hair, while wearing a white shirt, red skirt, purple stockings, and black shoes. Her clay model shows her finalized appearance. A blonde character named Rina shown during 2008 development may possibly be an early version of Meryl. Old concept art proposed for Mother 4 by FlintofMother3 (back when Chaisu headed the project) depicted Meryl with light gray hair while she wore a green dress with a blue belt and a blue bow in her hair. She also wore glasses.9 Meryl's background had received few changes. Originally she was written as a very calm and studious girl with psychic powers who loved reading, which was kept up until 2014, when she was redesigned. An old character background also described her as the daughter of a wealthy family of aristocrats who was kept sheltered by her overprotective parents. By 2015, she was rewritten as a cheerful and optimistic girl whose strong PSI powers cause her to act overconfident and reckless. Interestingly, her hotblooded and overly confident personality used to belong to Travis, but when the characters were rewritten in 2014, it was given to Meryl instead. Trivia * A non-playable character seen during the gameplay trailer while Leo rides his motorcycle is based on an older version of Meryl.10 * Concept art shows Meryl holding a Mr. Saturn, and asking Travis if he's OK while he's daydreaming. * Meryl is the first female character in Mother to not wear a dress at all. * A very old synopsis for the game states that Meryl's last name is "Hinton."11 It was confirmed that Hinton is still Meryl's last name.12 * Her town was formerly named "Citrus Hills", but as seen in an update,13 it has been renamed "La Folia."1 * Meryl's favorite food is crepes.14 * Meryl prefers music similar to the Beach Boys.15 * Meryl's hair color is naturally purple.15 * Meryl's favorite flower is the Wisteria * Meryl can predict the future # [https://wahol-a-cola.tumblr.com/post/141229701907/im-not-sure-if-its-okay-to-ask-you-this-but ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mother 4 concept artist Lemon confirms Citrus Hills' name change] # [http://www.mother4game.com/ ↑ 2.0 2.1 Character info from the original Mother 4 website] # [https://web.archive.org/web/20131203141904/http://www.mother4game.com/ ↑ Character description from late 2013 version of the original Mother 4 website] # ↑ Stated by Lemon # ↑ The gameplay trailer # ↑ Stated by Pastel (creative director for Oddity) in a Reddit AMA. # ↑ Stated by Lemon # ↑ Page 211. Pastel in a 4chan post: "Designwise, I'm proudest of Meryl's, since she changed the most." # ↑ Concept art by FlintofMother3 # ↑ Stated by Pastel in a Reddit AMA # ↑ Page 12. 2010 synopsis # ↑ Lemon confirms Meryl's surname # [https://blog.mother4game.com/post/128463617734/update-6-whats-on-the-menu ↑ Update #6 on the original Mother 4 blog] # ↑ According to Pastel in an update # ↑ 15.015.1 From Pastel in a Discord chatroom